just be ethical

Joel Makower writes about Nike's dilemma regarding their ethical policy with regard to their dubious record and their new sustainable footwear line, "Considered". From the conclusion:

It will be interesting to see how the world considers Considered -- whether the public (and the activist community in particular) sees the glass as half full (“Nike has taken some impressive steps, even though it has plenty of room for improvement.”) or half empty (“Nike has no business making environmental claims because it still has problems it hasn’t yet addressed.”)

The verdict, whichever way it goes, will be watched by scores of other leadership companies in similar straits -- companies that have good environmental stories to tell, despite their imperfections, and whose executives ponder the question, “How good is ‘good enough’?”

This is a similar issue to the one I wrote about with Costa and Fairtrade: Costa obviously want to do the right thing with Fairtrade to an extent, but not enough to dent their profit margins by going 100% Fairtrade. This leaves them in the position of not really being able to promote the Fairtrade option, because to do so would invite the question "why are you still selling non-ethical coffee then?".

And as these ethical toeholds appear in brands' policies, we customers surely become increasing empowered to accelerate the process by asking those questions, discussing the issues and making informed choices. Leadership comes in many forms.

topics: Costa Nike Fairtrade commercial_ethics